Book 1 Chapter 132

It was almost the middle of the month, and the streets had at
long last started to bustle with noise and excitement. Early in the morning, BLY
& YM rushed off to the main street’s front entrance, which had been completely
covered with traditional ocean-themed decorations and Chinese lanterns. As they
strolled about the place, they countered various performances: traditional
Chinese opera, magic shows, acrobatics… they also saw many old Beijing street
vendors loudly advertising their wares. When it became dark, they joined the
thronging crowd, watching and applauding on as the traditional Dragon and Lion
show paraded down the street. The street was packed with all sorts of
mouth-watering delights; BLY and YM couldn’t resist walking through and trying
as much as possible, stuffing their stomachs to the limit.

“Hey, those “answer the riddle” lanterns over there have
prizes”, YM exclaimed. BLY followed him to have a closer look: before him was a
large plaque with red paper affixed to the top, boldly decorated with lantern
riddles. It read: “All who guess correctly can claim either free glutinous rice
balls or sweet glutinous dumplings; the more you guess correctly the more you
claim, but one wrong guess and game over”. BLY agreed to try, and when it
reached his turn, he answered the first two riddles rather easily, delegating
YM the honour of holding the prizes.
The stall owner turned a delicate shade of purple, embarrassed that BLY only
took 5 minutes to crack through the puzzles. BLY continued on, “The 5th
puzzle on the 3rd row, that proverb is about the many blessings of
strong friendship”. The girl in charge of verifying the answers looked terrified
and squeamishly replied “Incorrect.” The
stall owner erupted loudly, “Aha! Wrong! Next!”

“That’s not possible!” BLY responded indignantly, knowing
his answer was correct beyond a doubt, bluntly cursing the girl’s reply. He snatched
the “answer book”, validating his correct answer. YM fiercely added: “Are you
serious? We clearly got it right, and you have the nerve to allege we’re wrong:
are you simply unable to give us our reward?” In the end, the stall owner came
out, smilingly confronting BLY and YM. “It’s the Lantern Festival, the day of
fortune; we don’t want to let you win (everything) since we want to encourage
other people to come and have a go. Two handsome men like yourselves, I know that
you’re both very knowledgeable and capable of answering all these riddles, but
would it be fair to deny all the others waiting patiently in line the chance to
also win some prizes?” To that BLY laughed, and taking it like a gentleman, turned
to leave the premises. “Wait, don’t forget to take these!” he heard someone
call, nimbly catching the bundle tossed in his direction. Only once he caught
hold of it did he realise what was inside; YM couldn’t resist exclaiming “Woah,
these dumplings are massive! Are they even cooked?” For an instant, BLY’s eyes
froze: a memory flashed past his mind, drowned out by the clamour of the
street. (This is a reference to GH cooking dumplings for BLY, and how he would
always test whether they were cooked or not. Aww)

Once dusk approached, all the street lights turned on; BLY
and YM stood together on the street corner, taking a moment to again appreciate
the beauty of all the glowing lights shining across the streetscape, before
contentedly returning home. When BLY arrived at his courtyard, supper was
already prepared and the whole family was waiting on his arrival, receiving him
warmly and bringing a chair for him, gesturing for him to quickly sit down.

“Come come come, supper’s ready” BHQ yelled. The family
members raised their cups, regardless of whether it had wine or water, toasting
each other before urging everyone to dig in.

The whole family surrounded the small table, eating and
chatting happily, their faces full of joy, the dramas of the previous few days all
but forgotten; it was as if they had mutually agreed to bury this issue for the
sake of the last day of the lunar month, resolving to only talk about cheerful
things, determined to preserve the harmonious and happy mood till the last
minutes of that year.

BLY calmed looked at each merry face, listening to their
cheerful stories, eating the unfortunately soggy sweet dumplings, yet still feeling
a strong pervasive warmth creep into the bottom of his heart. (Now that he
thought about it), he didn’t have such a bad life, even with such an unfaithful
mother as Jiang Yuan; he actually was very fortunate, having such a fond and
loving family around him. He almost started to tear up, and quickly put down
his chopsticks and left. Aunt Zhou looked up at BLY’s departure, prodding BHQ “Why
is BLY having so little to eat?”

“I’ll have a look”

BHQ followed him. BLY went to his room, dragging out his
suitcase, quickly sorting his stuff into it, and carrying the bag of glutinous
rice balls he won earlier, pushed open the front gate and was about to leave.

BHQ: “It’s the 15th of the first month of the
lunar year, the time when the whole family comes together. Why don’t you go
back once the holiday ends?”

BLY didn’t move. BHQ looked at his son’s expression, knowing
that BLY would not change his mind, yet at the same time wishing that he would
stay. “Why don’t you wait till their house finishes their meal instead? (Why go
now?)”

BLY felt his heart squirm a bit from the guilt, but still replied
back to his father “I’ve finished eating, let Grandma and Grandpa know that I’ll
be back in about 2 days.”

BHQ sighed, somewhat unwilling to let go. However, he patted
BLY’s shoulder, looking at him understandingly. “Go then, the family mood won’t
be dampened by one less member. GH’s dad went to the army base, so you shouldn’t
let GH spend the night all by himself.”

Nobody understands one’s son
better than his father. BLY didn’t respond, but turned around and crossed the
courtyard. BHQ stood against the wailing Northern wind, unable to hold back his
hot tears. They say that when a girl is of age, she must be married off and
leave behind her parents; the same applied to BLY, and BHQ struggled to accept
it. (LOL)

GH awoke from the sofa, the room lights still on, window
curtains still closed, unable to ascertain whether it was day or night, nor the
time or date. He wasn’t sure how many days he had spent in this confused state
of mind, his lifeless eyes wandering all over the place. The whole room was a
mess, scattered with wine bottles everywhere, some empty, some half-consumed
before being thrown away in a fit; some were strewn across the floor, while
others were upright… apart from alcohol, his stomach was as empty as a cracked
egg shell. The hunger constantly burned through his pain and sadness, requiring
several bottles of iced bear to quench the flames until he could feel no more
pain, and only then could he rest his head back and sleep properly.

He stood upright, his whole body aching, dragging his tired
and sleepy feet over to the window, opening the curtains to reveal that night
had indeed fallen. His dispirited eyes swept across the streetscape, noticing
the outside lights were rather bright, the crowds rather large, and the
Southwestern night sky blossoming with soaring fireworks, fading into shadows
beneath the glittering stars…

Stupefied, GH pulled closed the curtains, opening the fridge
only to find nothing inside. His eyes swept the floor, locating at last one
unopened bottle of red wine after feeling around in between the couch gaps.
With a now practiced flourish of the hand, he removed the cork and drank deeply
from the bottle.

Chugging it down, after only two gulps the doorbell rang
suddenly. Stopping himself, pretending not to hear, he continued to force down
another gulp. The doorbell rang again. GH calmly dropped the wine bottle down
on a nearby coffee table and then walked over towards the door.

His forehead ached from all the alcohol, and his fingers
were all clumsy from days of only gripping glass bottles. He struggled to open
the doorknob, taking several times before he finally wrenched it open. Outside
stood a lonely figure. GH stared, blankly.

BLY was still wearing the same clothes he had on when he
left GH all those days ago, carrying the same suitcase GH had provided him with
all those days ago, wearing the same gloves GH got him on Christmas Eve all
those weeks ago, and was holding onto a bag of massive sticky rice balls, displaying
two embarrassed red ears as he stared back at GH.

At this moment, time froze.

Neither said a word to each other.

They silently contemplated each other, while an undercurrent
of intense emotion swept under and around them. At long last, GH strode across
in large bounds, suddenly hugging and holding onto BLY in his well-built arms. It
is impossible to describe that feeling when you recover everything that you
have lost, the same feeling that engulfed GH in that moment, sending him
tottering on the verge of collapse. Nor can anyone adequately put into words
what BLY felt at that very point in time, how precious GH was to him and how
painful his absence was. GH wrapped one arm tightly around BLY’s back, as if to
morph them into one body, while the other gently hooked around the back of BLY’s
head; with his face slightly turned, his cold lips tenderly massaged the
perimeter of BLY’s ear, allowing him to be comforted by BLY’s body heat.

Originally, BLY came here without any special feelings or expectations;
when he rang the doorbell, no particular thoughts ran through his mind. But
once GH hugged and embraced him, all kinds of hidden emotions bubbled from the
surface and enveloped him in a fuzzy warmth of happiness, of a kind even
greater than that of the family whom he had just left behind.

After a while, BLY was the first to speak.

“GH... You owe me big time for what you did.” (Hehe, you’ll
see soon what this is)